Part Two
The object floated it in space.
The vacuum of deep space had kept it perfectly preserved for the eternity that it had wandered through the void. A shape of geometric lines, fashioned out of a crystalline substance whose sculptors had long since passed the veil, it remained hurtling through the black with no destination to reach and no end in sight. It joined the throng of so many others like it, traveling the space between the stars in its nomadic existence, all the while waiting for its time. Sometimes the end would come abruptly when it became caught in the gravitational field belonging to a planet or a star and would remembered as nothing more than a shooting star in the night sky before it was burned up forever.
Over the centuries, ships had passed by it, some had paused long enough to look before continuing again, but none had decided to salvage it from the wilderness. It had seen all kinds travel by, some in ignorance and others in just plain indifference. It had watched them come and go, all the while waiting, hoping and in some instances, praying for salvation. Time lengthened, stretched and finally disappeared into the distance, leaving behind despair and more waiting. Hope had dwindled like patience even though the need was just as strong, just as fierce as the day it had begun its imprisonment. Those who desired immortality had no idea how long it could be when one was sentenced to wandering aimlessly through nothingness for all time.
Then one day, a ship appeared and instead of veering away as others before it had done time and time again, this one slowed and closed in on it.
"What is it?" Chris Larabee asked from the bridge of the Maverick.
The object was beautiful, whatever it was. On the viewer before him, it hurtled in silent grace through the void, almost invisible because it had been drifting between stars and there was no illumination to allow anyone to see it, let alone be able to admire its inherent beauty. Illumination was hardly a problem when several million tons of warship closed in on it. A thousand points of light from the numerous windows, portals, observation decks and other pexiglassed view stations on board bounced off the smooth, crystal surface. It hit the object like the light of sunrise, gradual but nonetheless breathtaking when silhouettes came into feature and facets of its crystal surface reflected it back at them. For an instant, it looked like the brightest star in the sky.
"Unknown," Alex shook her head in response, her eyes being the only one the bridge that was not focused on the scene beyond the port bow of the Maverick. Across the bridge, activity had slowed to a crawl with only Alex working quickly to produce answers as to what it was they were all gaping at with such awe. For the present however, it still eluded her. "It could be a probe." She ventured a guess but the doubt in her voice was clear.
"I don't think so," Vin shook his head, his cobalt colored eyes fixed on the view screen, admiring the glimmer of light that illuminated off the surface of the thing each time it moved across the nose of the ship. He only needed to nudge the controls gently to keep the object at its constant position on the nose of the ship, using the ship's thruster control to maintain that slow speed. "It's drifting, and I don't see anything that could be propulsion systems."
"Vin's right." Chris tended to agree with the helmsman statement and knew that in seconds, Alex would come up with a better description. With a little smile, he knew that his science officer hated puzzles and one she could not solve would occupy her time like her very own demon until she had cracked the mystery surrounding it. In that way, she was like every other science officer he had ever met and more to the heart of an explorer than anyone else on the ship.
"Still it's out here and it's not natural, is it?" He mused once more and looked over his shoulder at his science officer for confirmation on that fact. The wonder of space made it difficult to make any statement even one for such a simple question difficult to ascertain without scans, examination and theory. Too many times had they come across objects, life forms, spacial phenomenon's that by all rights should not exist, either in nature or man-made but the fact was, they were there, and the rules usually got thrown out the window at that point.
"Without more specific scans, to say otherwise, I'd say that thing is a construct of some kind." Alex was glad to be able to give the captain something more than a muted response telling them nothing and felt relieved that she had been put forward a question she could answer. Sometimes, people tended to confuse the science officer as being the fountain of all information regarding everything. Science officers were only as good as the data they could work with and the current situation did not give her little more than a meager portion. "The cut of the object is too precise to be a natural formation and judging by the measurements which are identical in some sections, I would say that it was cut to size, probably out of a single block of crystal."
"Amazing," Mary commended, her blue grey eyes sparkling with curiosity. The object was a tribute to craftsmanship and appeared like something that ought to be enjoyed by thousands, not left to languish in the frozen gaps of stellar space.
"It's so beautiful." She could not help but remark and though they were not as open with their opinions as she was, no one on the bridge could refute that statement. Mary's experience with space exploration was limited. While the others had prepared for life out in space and some had spent most of their career in it, Mary had spent her career in conference rooms, debating with diplomats and exploring new cultures as far as their traditions went not the space around their worlds. Being protocol officer for the Maverick had placed her at the heart of Starfleet's charter, to seek out and explore new life and was far away from what she had been accustomed to as one could possibly get. However, the advantage to being in this new environment was the fact that she could view every discovery with the fresh eyes of a child in a new playground.
The Maverick had been traveling to Pacifica as intended when sensors had detected the object that they were not viewing with such interest. At first, they thought it was merely a piece of space debris but Alex being the thorough officer that she was had discovered that there was more to the spacial flotsam then first glances might indicate. Although there was never any danger of a collision since proximity alerts would have screamed warning as soon as the object became dangerous, the nature of it demanded that they assess if there was any danger to other passing ships. It was never wise to assume that every vessel flying through the immediate vicinity was of the technological sophistication of a galaxy class starship and what may be a slight threat to them could kill someone else. In either way, Chris was not about to risk that.
"Could it be a weapon?" Ezra Standish asked, not at all taken by the beauty of the object as the rest of his crew and more capable of viewing it with an objective eye. Their reaction to the thing was half the reason for his concern and he wondered whether the object had been sculpted in such a way to engender the response he was seeing in his comrades right not. Ezra could think of nothing more disarming than masking something lethal around a veneer of something so captivating to draw in potential victims before attacking with ruthless efficiency when it was all said and done. The term flypaper seemed to apply in this instance.
"I don't think so," Alex glanced at Ezra and saw that he was deadly serious about the question. In all honesty, she could not blame him for he was after all, the security officer. "It appears to be a solid block of crystal. There is nothing inside it at all to make it anything, let alone a weapon." Still, as her eyes studied the readings on her console, she wished she could be entirely certain about that. "Unless they're using a kind of technology that is so far unknown to anything in the Alpha Quadrant."
"That is what I feared." Ezra let out a deep sigh, not at all willing to shake the belief that there was something amiss at the spectacle of debris they were so fascinated with.
"Actually," she said after a moment of studying the things. "If I did not know better I would say that its storage crystal, not unlike the ones used by the Cardassians."
"Cardassian security crystals are 30 centimeters long," Vin exclaimed. "That thing is almost 10 meters long and four across."
"Yeah but I think she's right," JD agreed, having come to the same conclusion. Although it was obvious that there were no signs of life on the object, Alex had instructed JD when the object had first come into their sights, to conduct such a frequency sweep. Being a crystal, Alex suspected that it was extremely sensitive to any kind of atmospheric changes even in an airless environment as this and might be capable of producing sound. "It's giving off resonate harmonic frequency the closer we get to it, like beacon."
"So, what's it doing out here?" Chris asked out loud, not really expecting an answer. "As far as I know there is not space faring race in the immediate vicinity. It could have come from Pacifica, but I know for a fact that their technology could not produce something like this."
"Captain," Alex said suddenly, the tone of her voice changing enough that Chris swiveled around in his chair to face her. She wore an expression on her face that could have been disbelief but mostly awe and that was an emotion Alex rarely displayed.
"What is it?" He demanded, wanting to know what she had discovered as her eyes darted from the screen to the console, her hands flying across the panel as she tried to reconfirm what she found.
After a moment however, Alex had no choice but to settle with the idea that what was before her was real. "According to my scans that thing is almost half million years old."
A low whistle escaped someone behind them. Chris thought it might be JD.
"My god!" Mary exclaimed, not so restrained with her own astonishment. "How long do you think it's been out here?"
"It's impossible to say without more detailed analysis," the science officer answered, still somewhat stunned by her discovery over the age of the thing. She raised her eyes to it as if a visual study would give her the answers that scans would not. "I need to be able to examine it with more specialized equipment that this."
"You want to bring it on board?" Ezra looked at her, not at all liking the idea of bringing the thing onto the Maverick, not when they did not have the slightest idea of what it was. The way it had captured the attention of everyone who saw it made Ezra very nervous and this had all the earmarks of a very bad idea. "Captain, that is unwise. As far as we know, that appears to be quite benign, but we know very little about it, what its purpose was intended to be. With all due respect to Commander Styles, everything we know about it is speculation, not hard data. For all we know, it could still be a weapon that was left here for any unsuspecting person to find."
"Captain," Alex sighed, understanding Ezra's objections but disagreeing with him on the most basic level. "That is a significant piece of construction floating out there in space. It's never been encountered before by any Federation ship before now. We cannot just keep going and ignore it simply because we have no idea what it is. Granted, Ezra is right, we cannot determine exactly what purpose that object was originally intended but I believe it data storage device. The entire history of a civilization could be contained inside that crystal, perhaps stored because they wanted someone to know who they were. It seems terribly short sighted of us if we just ignored it and let their voices go unheard."
"Okay, okay," Chris conceded defeat and because he was a little moved by her impassioned plea. Sometimes Alex could be a hard-nosed, pain in the butt but she was a good officer and a true explorer, a trait Chris had to confess he shared with her. In all honesty, he did believe that object had been left behind by someone that wanted to be heard and he wanted to know what that object was as much as she did. "You convinced me commander. Transporter..."
"Captain..." Ezra interrupted quickly before he could carry out that order, still having a multitude of reservations over this course of action.
"Ezra its coming on board," Chris said firmly before adding in a more conciliatory note. "However, you will take full measures to see to it that the possibility of any danger to the ship is negated by putting that thing through its paces, Level 5 force field, the works. I want it cleared technologically, microscopically and any other way a talented security officer like yours can throw at it. Until we assess that there is no possible danger to the ship, no one gets near it. Is that understood?" Chris looked over his shoulder far enough to meet Alex's gaze to show her that he was resolute on this point.
Alex nodded and exchanged a glance with Ezra, indicating that she understood his authority in this matter and would adhere to whatever he decided would be the best way to proceed. Although she was a scientist by nature, she was also a Starfleet officer and the welfare of her crew had to come first.
"Transporter room," Chris spoke out loud.
"Transporter Chief Rain here Sir."
"There is an object on our port bow, science station is sending coordinates right now." Chris asked, confident that Alex was already moving to fulfill that order. "I want you to lock and transport to Cargo Bay 1. I want it placed in Level 5 containment."
"Aye Sir," the unseen voice of the Trill lieutenant responded.
All eyes turned to the screen as they watched the construct in the view screen, still tumbling through space with no agenda in mind, looking not unlike a Catherine wheel when the light bounced off its flawless surface against the jet colored sky behind it. As the transporter beam locked on to it, the objects spectrum of color changed all together as a shimmer of gold encompassed it in all totality before it vanished off the screen all together.
A moment later, Transporter Chief Rain's voice sang through the bridge in all its melodic tones. Those who were accustomed to her voice found it strangely reassuring for some unknown reason. "The object has been beamed directly to Cargo Bay 1 Captain, under Level 5 containment."
"Thank you, Lieutenant." Chris smiled and then swiveled around in his chair to face Alex and Ezra again.
"She's all yours."
Ever since coming on board the Maverick, Josiah found that the one person he could truly call a professional colleague as well as a peer of equal was Nathan Jackson. It was not easy to get to know the doctor even though outwardly, he was a friendly sort. However, Nathan's personality, the one he hid away behind the stock standard facade of the Chief Medical Engineer was not so easy to discern. He was a man of surprising sensitivity, who would have been a more than able Counselor if it was not for the fact that healing was what he was born to do.
And he truly was born to it.
Josiah had watched him mend bones, cure ailments and regard patients with such care, it was almost a pleasure to see. Children coming in with scraped knees and teary eyes usually left with smiles that had little to do with Nathan's treatment of their wounds but rather how he had made them feel about the whole thing. Josiah's friendship with Nathan had been slow to form. Their offices were down the corridor for one another, so it was inevitable they would see each other a great deal. Although they were senior staff, they were not required on the bridge. Thus, whenever the situation got tense, both men usually rode out the storm when there were no casualties of course, sharing a bottle of Romulan ale which apparently Nathan had a taste for and Josiah had contacts to acquire, since Romulan ale was contraband.
It was only after Josiah had to gotten to know Nathan very well did he understand why the man took his patients and his ability to heal so seriously. Until the age of seventeen, his only family had been his sister Rebecca. Growing up on one of the outer colony worlds where medical treatment was scarce, Rebecca had been struck by Andulusian Fever, an ailment whose symptoms were so slight they could be easily mistaken for the common flu. The doctor on the colony had dismissed it as such and despite Nathan's protests to the contrary that it was something worse because he knew his sister, treatment for the deadly disease was not forthcoming. The pathology of Andulusian flu may have had slight symptoms but when it flared, its effects were nothing less than devastating. Within a day, nearly all her body functions had shut down and in a little more time than that, she was gone.
It was a loss Josiah suspected Nathan had never recovered and it showed in his attitude to his patients. He never dismissed anyone out of hand and what made him truly an exceptional healer was his ability to diagnose with incredible accuracy was that same reason. It was difficult to say at what point Josiah and Nathan had become friends, but their friendship soon reached a point where Josiah found that there were times when he needed counsel himself and Nathan had the same sensitive approach to his problem that the doctor had for his patients.
"So, let me get this straight," Nathan said to Josiah inside the confines of the doctor's private office in sickbay. "She asked you to join her on this field trip."
"Yeah," Josiah nodded. "I said yes but I don't think I'm ready."
"To go on a field trip?" Nathan looked at him over the cup of ale in his hand of which he was about to take a sip.
Josiah who was sitting across his desk, nursing his own glance gave the doctor a look. "No, for a relationship." He growled
"Woah," Nathan said putting down the glass and staring at the Counselor. "When did we go from field trip to relationship?"
"Well I'm sure that's where it's going." Josiah said somewhat annoyed that Nathan could not see anything so obvious. "I mean out of the people on the ship, she came to see me? Obviously, she wants me."
Nathan chose not to make too much comment about that and rubbed the bridge of his nose as had to consider his reply. "Obviously. What about you? Do you like Audrey?"
Josiah hesitated now, uncertain about his answer. "She's a nice woman. Reminds me a lot of..." he paused a moment as it became a little difficult to continue. He thought he had become used to Ayla being gone, that missing her was only natural. They had spent so many years together that it was natural her being gone was going to be with him for a long time but until Audrey came into his life, Josiah had never been as uncomfortable about her as he did now.
"Of your wife?" Nathan ventured a guess.
"A little." Josiah had to confess. "But it's not just that she's like Ayla but there's something about her personally. I could care about her."
"Josiah," Nathan took a deep breath, knowing what exactly the problem was. "It's okay for you to go on with your life. I know you loved Ayla very much but ask yourself would she want you to carry on alone?"
"Of course not." Josiah said automatically even though he and Ayla had never even discussed the possibility, mostly because they could never imagine their lives without one another. Perhaps that had been too much of an assumption that he could not overcome now.
"You don't have to feel guilty about liking this woman Josiah." Nathan responded and wondered what it must be like to love someone nearly twenty-five years and then suddenly have her disappear. What kind of void did that leave behind? Nathan had relationships in his past but good relationships were hard to maintain when one was a doctor as dedicated as him. At what point did caring for one's patients take a backseat to a more personal love? Nathan always found he had difficulty making that choice which was why he was still alone.
"I know," Josiah agreed, having come to the same conclusion although it was nice to hear someone else tell him. "I guess I've been so happy on this ship the last few months that I started to forget how much I missed Ayla and all this just brought it back."
"Josiah," Nathan took a moment to consider what was the best thing to say to the man. "If you had a patient, someone who lost his wife a year ago and is now starting to feel as if he might be ready to care about someone else again, whom perhaps felt a little trepidation of taking such a step, what would you say to him?"
Josiah swallowed and let a wan smile curled the edge of his lips. "Probably that it is natural to feel this way. To take it one day at a time and see how he feels about it and not assume too much and just play it out, keeping in mind that life goes on and sometimes the past needs to take a backseat to the future."
"Well there you go," Nathan grinned. "Good advice coming from the best Counselor I know."
"Sneaky but helpful," Josiah let out a slight chuckle when suddenly, their conversation was interrupted by a message across the com system.
"Doctor Jackson please report to Cargo Bay 1 with full medical decontamination equipment."
"Looks like you're on." Josiah replied as Nathan sighed and put down his glass. Technically, he was off duty but Nathan like most CMO's tended to live inside their offices.
"The life of star." The doctor laughed as he stood up from his seat and started to walk towards the door.
"Hey Nathan," Josiah called out before the man could reach the door.
"Yeah?" He paused and met the Counselor's gaze.
"Thanks." Josiah said with heartfelt sincerity.
"Any time, brother." Nathan grinned and kept going.
Ezra had been determined that the object be put through its paces as the captain had ordered and, so it was a good few hours before he felt that it was safe to deactivate the Level 5-containment field that surrounded it since its arrival on board the Maverick. Ezra knew he was being overly cautious but while the unknown might sometimes translate into wonderful marvels awaiting discovery, to the Chief Security Officer it means that they were stumbling onto something that was potentially dangerous. As much as he would like to be fascinated by this crystal sculpture, he could not do so and expect his objectivity to it to remain. The lives of one thousand people counted on his neutrality to it and, so he was not about to fail them.
Julia's engineering team had gone over it micron by micron and confirmed what Alex had guessed when they had first viewed it from the bridge of the Maverick that it was a solid block of crystal. The properties of the crystal seemed to indicate it was some of storage device although what it could contain was beyond their understanding since it had no mechanism that might allow such a thing to be. It was like a huge shard of crystal floating in space, shaped like a thin wedge apart of a larger object. Under the gleam of the cargo bay lights, the object lost much of its spectacular radiance but was nonetheless an oddity worthy of much interest.
After Julia had completed her work, Nathan had conducted the same strenuous examination, ensuring that no space borne microbes had penetrated the screening process of the transporter system to endanger the ship. His inspection of the object was just as laborious, and he remarked that aside from it being nothing more than a solid block of crystal, the patterns of its molecular formation resembled those found in Ferengi thought makers, devices which apparently had the ability to supplant brainwaves with others. While that had given Ezra some cause for concern, Nathan had assured him that if this device was meant to be for data storage, it would make complete sense.
"So, can I get a crack at it now?" Alex asked hours later. By now, the only ones left in the room with the strange construct were herself and the chief security officer.
"I suppose." Ezra frowned. "I still believe this is a bad idea."
"Of course, you do," Alex replied, rolling her eyes as she walked towards the object that was lying on its side in the middle of the cargo bay. "You're chief security officer, you have to be a pessimist."
"My dear lady," Ezra retorted, deciding that he had done all that he could, and it was time to leave Alex to her new toy. "I am not a pessimist. I am merely being careful and saving those of you who are in the pursuit of scientific discovery from yourselves, as you require me to do on some occasion."
"And we all admire the way you handle the responsibility." She threw him a playful smile as she reached the object and started programming the tricorder in her hands.
"I think I shall leave you two alone." Ezra sighed and noticed that remark had not even raised the slightest bit of attention from her as her only response was a slight wave of her hands telling him to go while she continued her work. Without further comment, the security chief left the room.
Alex let out a sigh when he was gone and hoped that Julia would soon put the man out of his misery by consummating their relationship. The lack of sex was obviously driving Ezra up the wall and back since the man had been particularly testy lately. Fortunately for Ezra, Julia had told her and Mary that such was the plan when he whisked her away for this romantic vacation on Pacifica. What Alex did not mention at the time, was she was certain that was what Ezra had in mind too.
She put down her tricorder after she had programmed it and cast another meaningful gaze at the object before her, admiring the flawless finish of its polished surface. Instinctively, Alex placed her palm flat against the top of the crystal, feeling its cool bleed into her skin. When it had been brought on board, the object would have been freezing to touch because of the 250-° C temperatures of vacuumed space. The heat from the atmosphere inside the ship had gone a long way to warming it up but not fast enough because crystal was not the best conductor of such things.
Alex was suddenly about to remove her palm when suddenly, she felt the jolt of something that was not unlike electricity contacting her skin. The overload to her senses was so powerful that it blinded all thought from her mind before she was enveloped in cool, comforting darkness.